My Side of the Mountain

A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human companionship.

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I loved this book when I was in the 5th grade. It's still thrilling and educational and inspiring all these years later for me.

I checked it out because I wanted to see if I remembered it correctly. My brain cells did pretty well. Though I still don't like how it ends, at least now as an adult I understand why it ends that way.

Extremely well wriiten. It's a classic and deserves to be!

Every 5th grader should read this book over the summer and get lost in Sam's world of living off the land. They might even challenge their friends to living without social media for awhile.

I loved it!!!!!!!
It was about living in nature! It looked fun.
Since my parents didn't have time to take us camping or go in nature that much, well the book brought me inside the book. I felt nature all around me. CM 8yo

A great book, read aloud to my 7 & 13 year olds. Wish we had bigger trees nearby...

blue_shark_1246
Aug 20, 2014

This is such a great book. I loved it. It shows how you can survive in the wild without relying on others to do things for you. I recommend this to others.

blue_rabbit_229
Jul 14, 2014

This is an amazing book with a great plot and events, it kept me staying wanting just five more minutes to keep reading at night and waking up just too early to read it in the morning!

Mark_Daly
Feb 25, 2014

This was one of my childhood favorites. When I recently re-read it, I found Sam Gribley and his preturnatural competence as an outdoorsman rather off-putting. He seemed glib, almost smug in his confidence. Around page 50, however, the scale of his ambitions -- tame a wild animal? Survive an entire winter? -- swept me up again. For kids who enjoy the solitary indoor pleasures of reading, this tale of living a solitary life out of doors is gripping and thrilling.

Though the narrative is slower than most of the other books they read, my nine-year-old sons are absolutely enthralled with this book! (It's our current family read-aloud.) It's very well-written, definitely a "classic," and I highly recommend it, especially for boys.